Man who allegedly killed 73-year-old with explosive package meant for cop hit with new charges

October 3, 2018

Police investigate a package explosion on 222nd Street in Springfield Gardens, Queens on July 23 2017. (Gardiner Anderson / for New York Daily News)

A Queens man charged with inadvertently killing an elderly landlord after he tried in vain to send a cop explosives in the mail has been hit with new charges.

Victor Kingsley, 37, appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court on Tuesday, where he pleaded not guilty to federal charges alleging he harbored explosives in his Jamaica, Queens, home — separate to the ones he used that claimed the life of 73-year-old George Wray.

Kingsley stands charged with use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and transporting explosive material.

“Do you understand the charges against you?” U.S. Magistrate Judge Vera Scanlon asked Kingsley at his arraignment Tuesday.

“Yes, your honor,” he quietly responded.

Wray died on Aug. 1, 2017, three days after opening an explosive package delivered to his unoccupied property in Springfield Gardens, Queens.

The parcel — a cylindrical-shaped package filled with black powder — listed the name of an NYPD officer who arrested Kingsley in 2014 for stun gun possession, charges that were ultimately dismissed, authorities said.

If found guilty, Kingsley could face the death penalty — though such an outcome would be decided versus life imprisonment in a separate trial.